‘Minority report’: how best to analyze clinical trial data to address disparities

Excerpt

Eliminating health disparities is a national priority, and research into the factors that contribute to the disparity in outcome is critical to develop interventions aimed at eliminating them. In cancer research, and especially in breast cancer research, we have made enormous strides in reducing cancer related mortality [1]. Many of cancer research has focused on discovering and proving the efficacy of new interventions to reduce cancer mortality through large-scale clinical trials. In order to be effective, these results need to be disseminated to the community, and they need to be generalizable. If the population studied is similar to the population as a whole with respect to demographics and prognostic factors, the results could be considered generalizable. Often, due to issues related to access to clinical trials, strict enrollment criteria and a mistrust of clinical research, various subgroups of the population are underrepresented, such as the elderly, ethnic and racial minorities, patients with inadequate insurance, and patients of lower socioeconomic status. …